A major focus of the polyolefin industry in recent years has been on the development of new catalysts that deliver new and improved products. Bulky ligand transition metal compounds, for example, are now widely utilized in catalyst compositions to produce polyolefin polymers, such as polyethylene polymers.
It is recognized in the art that small differences in the molecular structure of a catalyst compound can greatly impact catalyst performance and that this is often governed by ligand structure. Therefore considerable effort has been expended in designing new ligand structures that may lead to catalysts of enhanced performance. WO 03/09162 discloses bridged bi-aromatic ligands, methods for their preparation and transition metal compounds derived therefrom.
It would be desirable to provide new bridged bi-aromatic ligands and methods for their synthesis. It would also be desirable to provide new transition metal compounds that can polymerize olefins with useful activity.